October 2011 Archives

We reported yesterday that Doncaster Council is offering employees a choice between a 4% pay cut and losing their job, according to Unison.

And the cherry on the cake for council workers appears to be a plan to charge them £700 a year for parking, even when their car is used for essential work business.

Social workers would clearly fall into this category as they often have to use their cars to visit clients.

The issue has prompted a debate on CareSpace with some suggesting the proposed charges are unjustifiable when using a car is part of the terms and conditions of your employment.

But others have suggested free parking at work is a perk and not a right.

Where do you stand? Is free parking a right or a perk for social workers? Has your local authority started charging for parking or has it drawn up plans to do so? How would you react if they did so? Would you start getting the bus instead and hand back some of your cases because you didn't have the time to make so many visits?

Do leave a comment and complete our mini poll below.

(Pic: Arthur Chapman on Flickr)

Unite yesterday began issuing ballot papers to 160,000 of its members on whether to take part in a possible series of national strikes over public sector pensions, starting on 30 November.

General secretary, Len McCluskey, said: "This is a historic call to public sector workers from a multitude of professions and skills, and across the four countries of this nation, to join forces and say to the government 'enough is enough'. The government is seeking to impose swingeing cuts in our members' pensions and refusing to negotiate meaningfully on any reasonable compromises.

"With the future dignity of millions of workers in retirement threatened, it is time to make a stand and vote yes for action."

The ballot will close on Wednesday 16 November.

Unions mount legal challenge over public sector pensions

Community Care is producing its second special report on violence against social care staff. Last year we found that nine out of 10 social workers had been abused, assaulted or threatened with violence while on duty.

We'd appreciate it if you would take the time to fill out this year's survey, so we can find out if the situation has improved.

Ruth Cartwright, England manager of the British Association of Social Workers, talks to Community Care about the support given to newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) in the workplace, compared with the "readiness to practise" of social work students. See our news story
 

"Local authorities, still the major employer of social workers, are dealing with cuts; some are freezing posts or even making social workers redundant. Other councils have protected frontline social workers, but it is not a time in which the number of posts is likely to expand.

"Employers are seeking experienced social workers and sometimes seem to be ignoring the fresh knowledge and enthusiasm that NQSWs can offer. Many NQSWs would not seem to have been best served in terms of having placements which are seen by employers as preparing them for the workplace. Dave Hill, director of children's services for Essex, spoke about this at the NCAS conference, urging employers to offer placements to social work students and to encourage and support their practice educators.

"It is a great concern to BASW that some NQSWs are going into child protection if they are doing so without a great deal of support and guidance, which does go beyond lip service and mean supervision is provided and caseloads are protected. Lack of induction and supervision for NQSWs is also a concern. As an erstwhile team manager, I know it is hard to make time for this, but it really does pay dividends. An induction period means the new worker is able to spend time getting to know colleagues, other professionals, systems and organisations as well as familiarise themselves with the nature of the work and will operate better as a result.

"Personal development plans are excellent. They should follow on from the learning experiences the student has had at university and enable student and manager to see how they should progress in training and experience to consolidate their learning and build upon it.

"Directors and senior managers can have unrealistic expectations of NQSWs, partly because their need is often for social workers who can hit the ground running and be well versed in all the policy and procedures of a particular council. If NQSWs are not given adequate induction and supervision, it is no wonder their performance is not what their managers want. In my work on the Social Work Reform Board, I have found academics to be very keen to produce social workers who can do what is needed, while not compromising on the values which should underpin their work.

"Although there is much to commend the current degree in social work, the complexity of knowledge and skills that social work requires does make it essential that there is excellent continuing professional development following qualification. BASW is very pleased that some employers, in spite of the economic difficulties, are still investing in NQSWs."

News, support and job advice for newly qualified social workers

BASW's guide for NQSWs 

BASW is hosting a seminar for NQSWs in Birmingham on 2 December

Eastenders character Roxy Mitchell talks to a social worker in one of next week's episodes after her daughter, Amy, ends up in hospital. Let us know what you think of the Beeb's depiction of social workers by commenting below.

Find out more at Digital Spy

Photo c/o the BBC 

Social workers often say that they don't get regular enough supervision. But managers have been heard to claim that they offer plenty of supervision. Who is right? There's only one way to find out.... Fight! Fight! Fight!... On second thoughts perhaps just fill in our poll instead...

Word has reached us that a new Channel 4 show is looking for "inspirational people who have dedicated a lot of time to helping others", who will then be rewarded with a "special treat" (the mind boggles). This could apply to carers, foster parents, volunteers or charity workers. If you would like to nominate someone, email ap02@crackitproductions.co.uk or call 0207 2923581.

Oh and the treat is supposed to be a surprise (you can imagine it now; people looking shocked on camera, crying, etc - good TV), so keep the nomination secret.

So it seems the British Association of Social Workers will have the last word before the weekend (mainly because my post-NCAS brain cannot write any more news or blogs after this).

Anyway, BASW has hit back at the Department for Education's response to its concerns about the College of Social Work, labelling the DfE's comments "misleading, bizarre or partial".

As part of a detailed statement published on its website, the BASW's chief executive, Hilton Dawson, said: "The DfE says there are 'no arrangements in place for Unison to financially subsidise the College or Scie', but once again the detail of the agreement between the trade union and the College remains unpublished.

"Why are we being patronised by a 'nanny knows best' ethos that tells those not funded by the public purse to 'quieten down and just trust us to get on with it'?"

Dawson speaks out at NCAS

by senior reporter Jeremy Dunning

The anticipated protest by the British Association of Social Workers at the National Children and Adult Services conference turned into a bit of a damp squib.

Chief executive Hilton Dawson managed to get his harangue in over his claim that ministers have sanctioned the use of taxpayer money to benefit Unison and sustain a quango.

But the target of his harangue seemed odd - Labour's shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, who seemed bemused at this attack.

To slow hand claps, Dawson (pictured right) claimed that BASW had been thrown out of the mooted joint college arrangement while it was preparing to transfer its entire organisation into the proposed new body, which he described as "government-sponsored".

He said there was something wrong "at the heart of the development of the College of Social Work. It may be difficult for a Labour Party to face, but will you take this issue up?"

Burnham (left) said: "Things have gone wrong but it's not possible for me to make a judgment on why it was done. In the first place it [the College] was to raise the profile, status and quality of social work.

"Let me have a look at the issues."

The government has said that the Social Care Institute for Excellence (Scie) [which is facilitating development of the College] is not a part of government and that while it is funding start-up, it is not engaged in negotiation with Unison.

114,864 people reached via 1,500 tweets using  #ncasc.

The top tweeters, according to a TweetReach report (see Scribd embed below), were @shirleyayres, who generated 168,802 impressions, and @CommunityCare, who generated 121,519 impressions.
(In fact, the Community Care twitter team generated 284,370 impressions between them, which we are rather pleased about.)

1,039 delegates attended the National Children and Adult Services Conference in the Excel Centre, London.

83 The number of stands at #ncasc

 

2 The number of cupcake displays
(The pink cup cakes, right, were made by Frost and Snow, the social enterprise set up by baker Sarah Frost with the homeless team from Midland Heart.

Neil Tryner, Midland Heart's head of business development, says: "We've just sold our 40,000th cupcake. The enterprise helps homeless people into employment and to learn new skills."

The multi-coloured cupcakes, left, were made by Pure Innovation Ltd, which delivers supported employment to people across the disability spectrum.

1 racing car on the Sanctuary Personnel #ncasc stand

1 teddy bears' picnic on the Open Objects stand - an online service directory for adult social care
And 1 chocolate fountain on the Liquid Logic stand.

Outside the House of Commons

Unison yesterday staged a tug of war against "masked raiders", David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne, over what the union is calling the "great public sector pensions robbery". 

by Claudia Megele, a social worker and service director of A Sense Of Self, which offers support groups, psychotherapy and counselling services in London.

Social work/social care practitioners, students, academics, campaigners, journalists and organisations came together on Tuesday night for the first live social work Twitter debate hosted by the Social Work and Media Network together with Goldsmiths University of London and The Open University.

This was the inaugural debate of regular fortnightly online events which offer a shared open online space dedicated to social work/social care. Organisers selected Twitter to enable an unstructured non-linear debate that ensures maximum interaction and knowledge generation (A process more similar to a mind-map rather than a flowchart).

The first question of the evening was about the role of social work in society which was followed by many tweets and vibrant discussions. The answers ranged from being an agent of social change/justice to being burdened by paperwork and a tick-box culture.

The variety of responses highlighted the vast scope and complexity of social workers' interventions and the difference of perspective among participants. However, there was consensus that social workers' role was stretched thinly and presented difficulties in achieving social work's values (e.g. social justice).

When @SWSCmedia asked the final question "How can we establish and sustain a more engaged and positive role and identity for social workers?" There was a clear resurgence of some of the passion that drives social workers to pursue this challenging profession. It was inspiring to see so many practitioners and stakeholders come together to debate and celebrate social work in an open and lively manner.

This event presented a new beginning for social work and a new level of engagement for social workers as best expressed in one participant's tweet "We've seen the future! We were present at the creation." Social Work and Media's next debate is 1 Nov. at 8:00 PM on "Developing Leadership in Social Work" and we invite practitioners, academics, employers, BASW and the College of Social Work to participate in this event.

The post of chief social worker in England could be created earlier than planned, it was suggested yesterday.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCAS), the Department for Education's Jeanette Pugh said: "We have committed to [creating] a chief social worker by the end of next year... that might be one where we can do it a bit earlier than publicly stated."

Pugh was responding to a question from the audience about how the ongoing implementation of Professor Eileen Munro's recommendations would fit in with the wider programme of reforms to social work.

Pugh could not give a clearer idea of the timeline for implementation.

Find out what Burstow had to say about the role

Michael Guthrie, head of policy and standards at the Health Professions Council (HPC), explains why social workers in England should get involved with their work to develop new standards for the profession.

"As you may be aware, next year the regulation of social workers in England is due to transfer from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the HPC. We are also due to be renamed the Health and Care Professions Council to reflect our new role. As part of getting ready for the transfer, we are currently consulting on standards of proficiency for social workers in England.

"Each profession regulated by the HPC has their own specific standards of proficiency and this is a legal requirement. The standards of proficiency will set out what a social worker needs to know about, understand and be able to do when they become registered for the first time.

"We will use these standards when we approve undergraduate degree and master's degree programmes in social work, to make sure that someone who successfully completes their degree has met the standards they need to practise safely and effectively as a social worker.

"We know that once a social worker becomes registered their practise might develop in lots of different ways - for example, they might work in different settings, specialise in a particular area of practise or become involved in training social work students.  Because of this, once a social worker is registered with us we will expect them to continue to meet the standards of proficiency, but only those that continue to apply to their particular scope of practice."

Replacing the code of practice

"Currently social workers have to meet the GSCC's code of practice for social care workers and our standards of conduct, performance and ethics (SCPE) will replace this code.

"These standards describe how the public and professionals alike expect someone who is registered with us to behave. They include standards such as the need to act in the best interests of service users, protect confidentiality and behave with integrity and honesty.

"The standards apply to all of the 15 professions we currently regulate and once social workers in England join the HPC register they will also have to meet these. Next year, we plan to review these standards so there will be an opportunity for social workers to help us shape these standards for the future.

"We are really keen to hear what social workers and others think about the draft standards. It provides a great opportunity for individual social workers to get involved and to help us to make sure the standards are fit for purpose and reflect the values and context of social work.

"The consultation closes on 18 November. Please do respond and help us in shaping these important standards for social workers (see link above)."

The College of Social Work is today launching a "big debate‟ as part of a major membership recruitment campaign ahead of its formal launch in January next year. The campaign will highlight a number of key words associated with social work in the 21st century - starting with "knowledge‟ - and link to a series of blogs by leading social work professionals.

Interim co-chair of the College, Maurice Bates, said: "Opening up this debate with the profession will help us to ensure that we prioritise what matters most to our prospective members."

However, the British Association of Social Workers has rubbished the idea of presenting social workers with "a series of patronising 'key words'".

A spokesperson told the Guardian's Social Care Network: "Instead of being presented with a series of patronising 'key words', social work will be better served if the interim board of the College of Social Work comes back to the table to resolve any issues which it seems to have with us, ahead of our AGM in two weeks time while our members still have the opportunity to vote on merger rather than division."

Rumour has it that the Department of Health is finally about to launch its consultation on changes to the bursaries given to social work students.

The consultation was supposed to begin at the beginning of the year, but was pushed back while the coalition government considered changing the wider higher education funding system (which it duly did, raising the tuition fees cap to £9,000).

Some higher education institutions have bemoaned the delay to the bursary consultation, pointing out that it doesn't exactly help them plan programmes for next year. Some told us growth was being restricted by the uncertainty.

But a newly-published statement from the Social Work Reform Board claims the consultation is expected to begin this month. The DH's press office has also confirmed, in a beautifully vague way, that it will be "very soon".

There didn't appear to be much mention of social work regulation in the House of Lords debate on the health and social care bill, which started on Tuesday and carried on yesterday.

The exception was Baroness Pitkeathley, who chairs the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. She said the decision to abolish the General Social Care Council and transfer responsibility for the social care register (in England) to the Health Professions Council was the only, "very small part" of the bill she was in favour of.

"I support this package of reforms because they keep the interests of service users and the public at the heart of the system regulating social workers in England," she said.

Pitkeathley said the introduction of voluntary registers of social care workers would introduce "a new, cost-effective and flexible option" for improving service user safety and experience.

She added: "I also support the reforms because they allow for greater integration of health and social care regulation through our oversight function of the renamed Health and Care Professions Council, and of course the CHRE will be renamed the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care to reflect the broader scope of its work."

Birmingham Council yesterday launched a social work academy for staff in its children's services, in partnership with Birmingham Uni. But, unlike the academies in Croydon and Hertfordshire, this one is for experienced staff as well as newly qualified social workers.

"We want all social care staff in the city to be members of the academy and to keep learning and developing professionally," said Matt Bennett, executive member for children's social care at the council.  

It is hoped the academy will help to resolve some of the issues identified following the death of Khrya Ishaq (pictured above) and improve recruitment and retention of children's social workers.

Photo by Jamie Jones/Rex Features

Senedd building, Cardiff, where the awards were held

The efforts of social workers in Wales have been recognised in a national awards ceremony.

Introducing the 2011 BASW Cymru Social Work Awards, Mark Drakeford, Labour Welsh Assembly member, said the event helped to recognise unsung social workers: "It is important to remember that there are social workers across Wales whose daily work goes unremarked and unrewarded."

Two social workers with a combined seven decades of experience in practice were among the big winners. Patricia Griffiths was presented with the Practice Teacher Award for her work in hospital and community-based practice over a 35-year career, while Karen Phillips picked up the Spirit of Social Work Award for her 37 years supporting disabled adults.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to a youth justice social worker and former BASW Cymru chair, Nick Lovell, who has also worked hard to highlight concerns over the support on offer to overseas trained social workers.

Keith Drury, BASW Cymru chair, said: "Social workers have for so long been misrepresented by the media, who only ever seem interested in isolated examples of bad practice. The people honoured this evening are representative of the enormous amount of excellent work that is carried out every day."

Photo by Rex Features

The last three months of walk-outs by bin men, social workers and social care staff over pay cuts of up to 5% have yet to result in a deal which will keep both staff and council managers happy.

The council has got to save £75m over the next four years. The pay cuts contribute towards this and will save 400 jobs, according to council leader Royston Smith.

However, it has been three months since the dispute started and I fear that momentum may be falling away from those wanting to protect their current pay rate.

The reality is that Smith's actions appear to have a reasonable degree of public support. A quick look at the comments this story receives on the local newspaper's website show much distain for those on strike. And why wouldn't the public support him? They get to keep much of their council services, without having to shoulder the big rise in tax or charges, which would surely be necessary to cover the budget gap if pay was not cut.

So the public keep their services, taxes stay low and 400 people, who would otherwise be out of job, get to remain in employment. It seems like an ideal scenario.

Don't get me wrong, if I was facing a pay cut of around 4% while inflation ran at 5% I'd probably be thinking about striking too, but in the political arena Smith's logic seems pretty rock solid.

With that in mind it's difficult to see much prospect for a full scale reversal of the pay-cuts.

However, why aren't the unions trying to leverage their members' loyalty to the council? They could, I assume, go on striking for some time yet as long as negotiations are making little headway, something which isn't in the interests of the council, public or staff.

But if they agreed to take the hit their loyalty may have a financial value to the council.

What I haven't heard suggested is a clause in an agreement, which accepts the pay cuts, which would commit the council to restore pay levels as a matter of first priority when budgets increase, which surely must happen at some point in the future (although the prospect of a double-dip recession would seem to push this further down the calendar). I would also argue those staff who stuck with the council through that period should get an increase in their pay at the same time, to at least make up for inflation.

This sort of loyalty bonus, or share holding type scheme, which sees staff rewarded in good times for taking a pay cut in the bad times would be fairer and more equitable than a straight cut. I suspect many people's biggest fear is that any wage cut will never be reversed.

It would also send the message that council management really do value their staff. That is powerful message to send and one which might just diffuse the dispute.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Social workers in Southampton are staging the biggest walk-out yet over pay cuts.

The dispute has been rumbling on for three months since staff were forced to sign new contracts with revised terms and conditions and reduced pay. Social workers earning £22,000 to £35,000 have had their pay cut by 4.5%, rising to 5% for those earning between £35,000 and £65,000.

Until now the walk-outs have been staggered but today sees staff across the council leaving their posts simultaneously.

The argument has gone on so long because many view Southampton, rightly, as a barometer for the rest of the country. Community Care has reported on other councils following a similar route and there are others, which are encountering less resistance.

If social workers in Southampton are successful it will give much greater impetus for unions to oppose cuts elsewhere.

Unison Scotland is preparing to ballot members on whether to take industrial action against proposed changes to pensions, including the Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme.

The union's Scottish secretary, Mike Kirby, said it was unlikely members of the Scottish LGPS would have to pay higher employee contributions. But he added: "However, [ministers] have given no assurances on other changes including making you work longer and reversing the changes to changing the way your pension is calculated so you may get a smaller pension on retirement."

Unison has already lodged a dispute with relevant Scottish and UK ministers over the proposed changes.

The ballot opens on 11 October and closes on 3 November.

Last week the love-in between the College of Social Work and the British Association of Social Workers ended and according to you guys it was the right thing to do.

Over two thirds of Community Care readers said the College was right to push on without the long standing professional association.

The two bodies had been set to merge before launching the college formally, but were unable to negotiate a settlement. Last week's news seems to represent the final chapter of what has been a rather on-again-off-again relationship which saw BASW even stake claim to the College of Social Work name earlier in the year.

The decision means BASW members will have to join the College separately if they want to get the benefits of membership. Whether those who voted the college was right to go ahead in this way are willing to put their money where their mouse, is something we won't find out until membership opens in January 2012.

+Update 16:24 04/10/2011+

At the time of writing this post the two thirds figure quoted was correct (yes votes made up 67% of 161 votes cast) However, I hadn't closed the poll and in the last 24 hours critics to the College's action have racked up 83 votes, half a week's worth of voting (247 votes at the time of this update). That has tipped the scales the other way to show 55% of you guys disapprove of the College's action.

Whether that is as unbiased a barometer of feeling as the original result is questionable, as it seems to be motivated by this blog post, but you'll have to make-up your own mind on that.